O.T. XVII [A] 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12; Rom 8:28-30; Mt 13:44-52

Dr. Williamson was a geologist doing some archeological excavation work in Tanzania. One day he found himself driving in a deserted area, slipping and sliding along a rain-soaked road. Suddenly his four-wheel drive vehicle sank up to its axles in the mud and got stuck. Pulling out his shovel, Dr. Williamson began the unpleasant task of digging the car out of a mud hole. He had been at it for a while when his shovel uncovered something strange. It was a pinkish stone of some sort. Being a geologist and naturally curious about rock formations, he picked it up and wiped away the mud. The more mud he removed, the more excited he became, and he could hardly believe what he saw. When the stone was finally clean, Dr. Williamson was beside himself with joy. He had discovered the diamond which became known as the famous Pink Diamond of Tanzania and is now set in the royal scepter of Great Britain. In today’s two parables, Jesus tells of two other men who unexpectedly discovered treasures

In the Gospel, Jesus teaches that God’s Kingdom is something of extraordinary value, like a hidden treasure or costly pearl, and that safeguarding it within us calls for total commitment. The Kingdom of God is God’s reign in our hearts, in our lives, in our homes, in our society, and in our world. Only those who develop a searching mind and are willing to give up everything for the great treasure of God’s Kingdom will be rewarded.

The "Kingdom of Heaven," synonymous in these parables with the "Kingdom of God,” is hidden, but it is of surpassing value. The parable of the pearl (45-46) makes the point that the sacrifice of everything must be made for this one thing of immense value. Those who have not sacrificed everything for it will not have this treasure and will come to know how much they have lost.

The first two parables in today’s Gospel are lessons in the total attachment to Christ and detachment from the things of the world demanded of the disciple to make the reign of God in himself, and in the world, a reality.  Frequent battles and foreign invasions encouraged the people of Palestine to bury their treasures like money and jewelry in their fields. For example, the great religious treasure – the “Dead Sea Scrolls,” discovered in the caves at Qumran in 1947 – was hidden there over 2,000 years ago. Sometimes unclaimed and forgotten, the hidden treasures awaited some lucky finder. Jesus tells the story of one such lucky treasure-finder who sold everything he had in order to get ownership of the field. According to the Palestinian laws of that time, the mere finding of buried treasure did not entitle the finder to possession unless he also owned the property in which it was found. In the parable of the treasure in the field and in the parable of the merchant who sought fine pearls, we see the image of one who recognizes the value of the kingdom of God and gives everything to possess it. Matthew, a tax-collector, might have experienced something like this when he discovered the eternal value of the Kingdom preached by Jesus of Nazareth.  When he discovered Jesus and his vision of life, everything else became secondary. Having a personal relationship with Christ, that is, making Christ’s view of life one's own, is the most beautiful, the most precious thing in the world. But most of the time, we are chasing false treasures like money, social status and pleasure. Jesus our true treasure may come to lives unexpectedly through some daily experience as he did with Mathew.  

Jesus wants us to know that the Kingdom of God is worth all we have.  He has come to offer us God's Kingdom, a unique pearl of the greatest price. The genuine disciples are those who respond to this opportunity with joy and selfless commitment, eagerly giving top priority to life in the Kingdom by doing God’s will, whatever it may be. The “treasures” and “pearls” of lasting value are the things of God. They are the love of family and friends, the support of community, and the sense of fulfillment that rises from serving and giving for the sake of others.  In order to attain such treasure, we must “sell off” our own interests, ambitions and agendas and thus free ourselves to embrace the lasting values of the compassion, love and mercy of God Who reconciles us to Himself.

when one discovers Jesus and his vision of life, everything else becomes secondary.  That is what St. Paul meant when he said: "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8), and again "For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 2:21). To have a personal experience of Christ and personal relationship with Him – in other words, to have made Christ’s view of life one's own – is the most precious thing in the world.  

Right now, it is for us to use the time given to us to go in search of the pearl of great price and to help others in their search. We are challenged to search and discern where the Lord is calling us so that we may know what path to take.

OT XVI [A] Wis 12:13, 16-19; Rom 8:26-27; Mt 13:24-43

In today’s parable, Jesus presents a wise and patient God who allows the good and the evil to coexist in the world, so that the evil ones may come to conversion before their time ends and God must punish them.  "Let the wheat and the weeds grow together till the harvest time.” God gives all of us sinners ample time to repent and change our lives. God calmly recognizes that there is evil in the world, but He sees that evil is no excuse for the good people not to do good with the power of God at their disposal. 

The weeds or darnel resemble wheat plants so closely that it is impossible to distinguish the one from the other until the ears of seed appear.  By that time, the wheat and darnel roots are so intertwined that the darnel cannot be weeded out without plucking the wheat out with them.  Another way to get rid of the weeds, as we know it now is to buy some weed killer. This stuff will really kill the weeds. The biggest problem with weed killer is that it doesn't know a tumble weed from a tomato plant. It kills every plant that it touches. Sometimes, it is best just to leave the weeds alone until it is time to harvest the crop. Then you can separate the weeds from the good plants.

The weeds in the parable stand for unrepentant sinners, people whose priority is themselves, who use others for their own advancement or pleasure, instead of serving them. These unrepentant sinners, unless they cooperate with God’s grace, repent and change their lives, will end up in Hell, "the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." The wheat stands for the righteous, those who have resisted the seductions of evil, repented of their sins, and battled against selfishness in order to follow Jesus Christ.

The parable hints at why we should not treat others as "weeds," i.e. evil or wicked.  Each one of us is a combination of wheat and weeds.  In each of us there are elements of the Kingdom of God and elements that are deeply opposed to it. 

Another reason we should avoid judgment is that we cannot draw a line which would neatly separate the good from the bad because everyone is a mixture of good and evil.  Here is Karl Rahner’s piece of advice to enthusiastic “weed”-gatherers: "The number-one cause of atheism is Christians themselves.  What an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable is the presence of those who proclaim God with their mouths and deny Him with their lifestyles.  Perhaps, the best defense of God would be to just keep our mouths shut and to live as He told us to.  The Gospel would then have such a power and attraction that we wouldn't have to worry about defending it.”

Bishop Sheen said in one of his radio speeches: “The history of the world would have been different if the Christian authorities had shown compassion, patience and mercy instead of expelling Hitler and Mussolini from the schools and Stalin from the seminary in disgrace as ‘weeds.’”

It's better to have a wheat field with weeds in it than a field with nothing in it at all. There is a cost to the innocent as well as to the guilty in trying to weed the wheat. In an imperfect world, the innocent can be rooted up along with the evil when we choose to pass final judgment.

Instead of asking why God allows evil to exist let us ask what God expects from us.  God wants us to take a good look into the field of our own lives to see what is growing there.  Let us work with Him to pull out the “weeds" in our own personalities.  Then we need to start treating the so called "evil ones” as Christ did.  Why did he not weed out Judas who betrayed him, or Peter, who denied him?  Jesus saw the “weeds” in their lives, but he saw also saw the wheat.  He knew that with encouragement the wheat could prevail.  And often it did.  “Even the most honest man has stolen something in his life, but this doesn't mean that all people are thieves.” (Dostoyevsky)

Some are judged as being too radical and others as not being radical enough.  Some are judged for embracing doctrinal errors, others for appearing not to have any doctrine at all.  Some are condemned for not caring for the poor, others for caring too much for the poor. The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being, including my heart. I may even be the weed in somebody else's garden.

 Let us patiently and lovingly treat the “weeds” in our society as our brothers and sisters and do all in our power to put them back on the right road to Heaven, especially by our good example and our fervent prayer for their conversion.

OT XV [A]: Is 55:10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Mt  13:1-23

Jesus taught the good news for three years. The message of Jesus penetrated the heart of each of his listeners because he spoke with tenderness using the vocabulary of the common man. In order to make himself understood more easily he made abundant use of comparisons which he took from the everyday life of the people.

In his parable of the sower, Jesus uses four different soil-types to represent four separate responses people can give to God's saving word. The word “parable” comes from the Greek word parabole, which means putting two things side by side in order to confront or compare them.  And that is exactly how Jesus uses parables:  He places a simile from life or nature against the abstract idea of the reign of God. Jesus’ parable of the seed sown in various soil types was an attempt to boost the morale of his frustrated disciples. They were upset and discouraged because they realized that their master was facing opposition and hostility from the scribes, Pharisees and priests. The synagogues refused to admit him to preach. So Jesus had to go to beaches and hillsides. Some of the Pharisees were planning to trap him, and the common people were more interested in his ability to heal them than in his preaching.  Using the parable of the sower in today’s Gospel, Jesus assured his confused disciples that the “Good News” he preached would produce the intended effect in spite of opposition and controversy. In fact, each one of us may display all four different types of soil at various times in our personal lives. Some time the seed or the word may remain dormant for some time before it produces the intended fruit.

Fred Craddock tells a story about the time he got a phone call from a woman whose father had died. She had been a teenager in one of the churches he had served as pastor twenty years before, and he would have sworn that if there was ever a person who never heard a word he said, that teenage girl was it. She was always giggling with her friends in the balcony, passing notes to boys, drawing pictures on the bulletin. But when her father died, she looked up her old pastor, the Rev. Fred Craddock, and gave him a call. "I don't know if you remember me," she started. Oh, yes, he remembered. "When my daddy died, I thought I was going to come apart," she continued. "I cried and cried and cried. I didn't know what to do. But then I remembered something you said in one of your sermons . . ." And Fred Craddock was stunned. She had remembered something he had said in one of his sermons?! It was proof enough to him that you can never tell how the seed will fall or where it might take root.

The parable of the sower challenges us to see how deeply the word of God has taken root in our lives, how central God is to the very fabric of our day-to-day life. 

Good soil represents the company of the committed people who are determined to serve Christ to the best of their abilities, people who are willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to see Christ's kingdom come, people who by their work and their witness bear fruit that does not perish. What kind of soil am I?

There has been a person who offered the best soil to God’s Word at all times. That is Mary, the mother of Jesus. She is the perfect model as to how we should listen to the Word of God. Luke says, “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Lk 2:19)

She is also the perfect model of obedience to God’s word.  She submitted herself to the word of God and declared:  “I am the handmaid of the Lord let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

She also commanded others to follow the words of Jesus. “Do whatever he tells you.”(Jn2:5).

How do we respond to the Word of God and to the various Acts of God in our lives? The real hearer of the word has an open mind; he is prepared to listen; he understands; and finally he translates his hearing into action.

Do we allow the trials and tribulations of this world to overwhelm the tender seed growing within us?  Do we pull back when people harass us because we are believers?  Do we decide, because things are not working out the way we think they ought, that God doesn't care for us, or that He is powerless, weak and not to be heeded? Lets’ keep the soil of our hearts loose and fertile so that the word of God may take root and bring a 100 fold fruit.

OT XIV (A): Zec 9:9-10; Rom 8:9,11-13; Mt 11:25-30

 A farmer went to a government bureaucrat specializing in animal health. The farmer sought help from the “expert” because ten of his chickens had suddenly died. The government expert instructed the farmer to give aspirin to all the surviving chickens.

Two days later, however, the farmer returned. Twenty more chickens had died. What should he do now? The expert said quickly: Give all the rest castor oil.

Two days later, the farmer returned a third time and reported 30 more dead chickens. The government expert now strongly recommended penicillin.

Two days later a sad farmer showed up. All the rest of his chickens had now died. They were all gone.

“What a shame,” said the expert, “I have lots more remedies!”

The world offers many so-called remedies to the problem of stress, but the truth is most of them don’t work. The world offers many so-called solutions for the tensions and burdens that push us down and pull us apart… but the truth is there is only one Prince of Peace, who can soothe our jangled nerves and save our troubled souls.

In today's Gospel Jesus says, “Come to me. All who are exhausted and weighted down beneath your burdens, and I will give you rest….. my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This is an imagery taken from the daily association of a farmer who used the yoke, and the carpenter who made the yoke.

It is a human tendency to mourn over our inabilities and blame God. It is common in everyone of us. We look at others talents, blessings, wealth, health and achievements.  In this despair we fail to appreciate our abilities and talents. When we are tested with trials we ask God Why me? And we fail to count the innumerable blessings that we have received.

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.

From the world over, he received letters from his fan, one of them conveyed: "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease?".

To this Arthur Ashe replied: The world over--50,000,000 children start playing tennis, 5,000,000 learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach the Wimbledon, 4 to semi-finals, 2 to finals. When I was the one holding the cup, I never asked god "Why me?".

And today in pain, I should not be asking GOD "why me?".

If we can have this attitude   we will not feel that our life is overburdened with problems.  God has designed our life only according to our ability. When we compare our sufferings with that of others often we find ours problems are nothing. It is very good remember the quote, "I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.

Every heavy burden in our life will become light, if it is accepted in love.

We are burdened by many other things: business, concerns about jobs, marriage, money, health, children, security, old age and a thousand other things.

To take the yoke of Christ is to enter into relationship with Christ as his loving servants and subjects and to conduct ourselves accordingly. The yoke of Christ is not just a yoke from Christ but also a yoke with him. A yoke is fashioned for a pair -- for a team working together. So we are not yoked alone to pull the plow by our own unaided power; we are yoked together with Christ to work with Him using His strength. By saying that his “yoke is easy” (11:30), Jesus means that whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly.

There is an old story which tells how a man came upon a little boy carrying a still smaller boy, who was lame, upon his back. "That's a heavy burden for you to carry," said the man. "That's not burden," came the answer. "That's my wee brother."

The burden which is accepted in love and carried in love is always light.  A mother will never feel spending sleepless night with the suffering child a burden. So when we do things out of love what seems to be heavy burden for others will become joyful.

One of the effects of Worship for many of us is that it gives us a time for rest and refreshment when we let the overheated radiators of our hectic lives cool down before the Lord. This is especially true when we unload the burdens of our sins and worries on the altar and offer them to God during the Holy Mass.

During this holy Eucharist, let's renew our trust and faith in Jesus, and ask him to help us make the burdens of our life light and carry them with him. 

OT XIII: 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a; Rom 6:3-4, 8-11; Mt 10:37-42

The Gospel lesson concludes Jesus' great “missionary discourse” in which he instructs his twelve disciples on the cost and the reward of the commitment required of a disciple. The first half of these sayings of Jesus details the behavior expected from his disciples and the second half speaks of the behavior of others towards the disciples.

“Whoever loves father or mother or children more than me is not worthy of me…."  These words may sound a bit extreme, since family comes first for most of us. What Jesus means is that all loyalties must give place to loyalty to God.   When we become followers of Christ, it really does change our priorities “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”

If we ask ourselves why we should love Christ more than our most dearly beloved relations and friends, then the answer we find is that the friendship, the closeness, already offered to us in Christ is something which goes further and deeper than even the very closest human relationship.

“What a morbid religion you have!” a Muslim said one day about Christianity.  “All that emphasis on suffering and death can't be good.” 

But suffering and death do not stand by themselves, for a Christian.  We are never to think of them as if they were the whole story.  We never think of Christ's suffering and death without thinking of his resurrection; and likewise our own suffering and death are openings to resurrection.  The last word is not suffering and death, but “that we might walk in newness of life.” 

There is no deep life without a lot of dying to oneself.  The way to deeper life is not through exaltation of the ego, but through its death.  The false self, the self-made self, the ego and its false pride: this has to die – or rather burst, because it is nothing real but only a bubble.  “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” 

"Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.". We live in a world where "finding their lives" is the paramount ambition of the majority of people. But Jesus tells us very clearly that this should not be our main concern. What he asks of us is that we should “lose this life" which means that we must stop living for ourselves alone.   We must forget our own security and work toward the security of others.  We must learn to take our own health a bit less seriously in order to care for those who are sick and hungry.   We must stop polluting the environment so that the rest of the world will have clean air to breathe. All these things fall into place when we lose ourselves in caring for others.

Jesus assures his disciples that whoever shows them hospitality will be blessed. Those who receive Jesus receive the One who sent him. So, too, those who help the "little ones" (messengers) will be amply rewarded. Our hospitality for others will be reward by Jesus. Hospitality means encountering the presence of God in others, usually where we least expect to find Him. The virtue of hospitality is the virtue of recognizing the presence of God in others and nourishing this presence. In the words of Mother Teresa, "The Gospel is written on your fingers." Holding up her fingers, one at a time, she accented each word: "You-Did-It-To-Me." Mother Teresa then added: "At the end of your life, your five fingers will either excuse you or accuse you of doing it unto the least of these.”

We, as a community, are to look for the opportunities to be hospitable-- and, of course, there are many ways of offering hospitality.  Maybe we offer hospitality simply by offering a stranger a kind word or a smile. When we live in such a busy and hectic world, we tend to brush off people who need help. A kind smile or a “hello" to someone waiting with us in a grocery line may be the only kindness that person encounters all day. As disciples called to receive Jesus in others let’s be charitable, kind and hospitable to others.

OT XII [A] : Jer 20:10-13; Rom 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33  

C. S. Lewis wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters. "Screwtape" is a devil, a very accomplished devil. Using any trickery, he can, Screwtape turns people away from God. By his letters, Screwtape gives advice to Wormwood, his young nephew and apprentice who is just learning the deceptive ways of devils. In one letter, Screwtape writes to Wormwood, "Keep them anxious, make certain they are worried about something." Remind people about their fears. Why this advice? Being a devil, Screwtape wants to get people so focused on their fears that they forget God. Our Scripture readings for this Sunday call us to preach Christ through our words and lives without fear. 

The first reading tells us how the prophet Jeremiah trusted in the power of God while he faced opposition for his prophetic ministry. In the second reading, Paul assures the Christians in Rome that they need not be afraid of opposition both because they share in the death of Jesus and his Resurrection and because they are united with Christ, the new Adam, in his resurrection.

Today’s Gospel passage is taken from the end of Jesus’ instruction to his disciples as he sends them forth to carry on his mission of preaching and healing. He asks them to live simply and to expect opposition and rejection. After having predicted future opposition and persecution, Jesus encourages his disciples to stand firm. Three times they are urged, "Do not fear!" "Do not be afraid!" Instead of shrinking from their task, they are to proclaim the Gospel boldly because they will be protected, just as Jeremiah was assured of God's protection. 

This phrase, “Have no fear” runs like a refrain through the Gospel, indeed through the whole Bible.  To Abram, God said, “Do not be afraid, I am your shield.”  To the prophets, “Do not be afraid, I am with you.”  To Mary, the angel said, “Do not be afraid.”  To the apostles, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.”  To Paul, the Lord said, “Do not be afraid.”  To all his disciples, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, little flock” (Luke 12:32). In fact there are 366 times the bible repeats: do not be afraid. May be God wants to tell us every day of the year do not be afraid.

Fear is a powerful factor in the life of every human being. In young and old alike, fear can express itself as shyness, feelings of inferiority, aggression, and (most painful of all) anxiety.  Anxiety is a generalized form of fear: fear of nothing in particular but of everything in general.  It is often about possible future troubles rather than present ones.

Today’s gospel reading offers a more substantial support.  It does not say, “Don’t be afraid, it won't happen.”  It says something more like, “Don’t be afraid; it may well happen, but when it does happen you will not be destroyed as a person.”  This is the difference between optimism and hope.  The 14th-century English mystic Julian of Norwich put it clearly.  “He did not say, ‘You will not be tempted, you will not be troubled, you will not be distressed,’ but he said, ‘You will not be overcome.’” 

The God who cares for a trivial bird like the sparrow also cares about our smallest problems – even the hairs on our heads are counted. While this is an encouraging assurance, it may be difficult to believe in the midst of persecution. But God knows everything that we go through – nothing that happens to us escapes Him. When we feel lonely and abandoned, when it seems that our prayers are unanswered, God knows and cares.

Jesus concludes by saying, "So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows." In other words, the perfect antidote for fear is trust in God. God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. No matter how dark the tunnel of life gets, as Christians, we are always able to see a light ahead: our resurrected Lord.

Any time we are afraid that we will make a wrong decision, afraid of what the future will bring our children,  afraid of growing old, or of what bad health will bring us,  let us take a moment to recall some of the great promises of God, and remind ourselves that God cares for each of us.

[A] CORPUS CHRISTI: Dt 8:2-3,14b-16a; I Cor 10:16-17 Jn 6:51-58.

October 17, 2008, a 22ft dinghy with 30 Dominican refugees aboard drifted for 15 days after getting lost at sea en route to Puerto Rico. What began as a journey to a better life went horribly wrong. According to the men, they were all told by the Captain  not to take any food and water on board since it was a one-day trip.

Two days after the boat left on, they complained of hunger and thirst to the Captain who could offer them no solution as he was hopelessly lost. The situation turned even worse when the fuel ran out leaving them stranded and completely helpless.

One week into the trip they were so weak from food deprivation, the first person died and was thrown into the sea.  They tried to sustain themselves on rain and seawater as they bobbed for days on the open waters, far off their original course. Famished and dehydrated, the survivors watched migrant after migrant die, each time dutifully waiting 15 to 20 minutes before throwing the body overboard.

By the 13th day only six out of 30 people remained. It was almost certain that nobody would complete their journey. The dying men persuaded those who were still alive, to eat their body to survive - a great act of concern.

In every nook and corner of the world we see a great symbol that announces the offer made by a man to sacrifice himself for giving life to the whole of humanity. The cross reminds us about the great sacrifice of Jesus.

Today, we celebrate the solemn feast of Corpus Christi. At the last supper Jesus established the Sacrament of Eucharist and symbolically shared His body and Blood with His disciples. He also commanded them to do it till the end of the world, in His memory. Food gives energy for sustenance. The Spiritual food Jesus offered, gives energy for spiritual sustenance. The concept of God feeding His children is found throughout the Sacred Writings.

When the Israelites, on their journey to the Promised Land, were hungry, God fed them with Manna. God sent a raven to feed Prophet Elijah. God sent Prophet Elijah to feed a woman in Zarephath. When Jesus saw the hungry people, he fed them with bread and fish, and finally Jesus went to the extreme of offering Himself for the spiritual sustenance of His People.

The second reading tells of The Corinthian Christians who were apparently ill-mannered and rude in their celebration of the Lord's Supper.  So Paul was trying to make them behave in a more Christ-like fashion. Paul was also clearly distinguishing the Eucharist from the ritual meals of some pagan groups known to the Corinthians.  For Paul, “the Body of Christ” can have two meanings: the Body of Christ that we share in the Eucharist and the Body of Christ that we form as the community of believers, united with the risen Christ.  Paul extended this union with Jesus to include union with all believers.  As Paul says, “the cup of blessing is a sharing in the Blood of Christ, and the bread we break is a sharing in the Body of Christ.”  The language is mystical, but it carries the meaning of the union of all believers with Jesus and thus with one another.  Our participation in the Eucharist concretizes and energizes our relationships with Christ and one another.  

Just as numerous grains of wheat are pounded together to make the host, and many grapes are crushed together to make the wine, so we become unified in this sacrifice.  Our Lord chose these elements in order to show us that we ought to seek union with one another, to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into Our Lord Jesus Christ and to work with Him in the process.  Christ is the Head and we are the Body.  Together we are one.  Hence, Holy Communion should strengthen our sense of unity and love.

This imposes a serious obligation on us Christians – to receive the Holy Eucharist only if we are determined to live in peace with one another. If there is disunity, if our hearts are filled with malice towards others, if we indulge in injustice, if we our thoughts are impure, we have no right to partake in the breaking of the Bread. The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is the living bread of eternal life. Therefore, it is meant for those who are pure of heart. Our outward piety towards the consecrated Bread and Wine cannot coexist with rudeness, unkindness, slander, cruelty, gossiping or any other breach of charity toward our brothers and sisters.

Justin the martyr taught “It is allowed to no one else to participate in that food which we call Eucharist except the one who is living according to the way Christ handed on to us.” St Augustine preached, “Before you receive Jesus Christ, you should remove from your heart all worldly attachments which you know to be displeasing to Him.

St. Therese of Lisieux wrote, “Our Lord does not come down from Heaven every day to lie in a golden ciborium. He comes to find another heaven which is infinitely dearer to Him - the heaven of our souls”.

Hence, let us receive Holy Communion with fervent love and respect -- not merely as a matter of routine.  

Before the greatness of this mystery, let us exclaim with St. Thomas Aquinas "O Sacrament most holy! O Sacrament Divine! All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine!"